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Tag Archives: extiction

I have been ringing the bell for parrot conservation over and over but now I want to look at smaller birds, the ones who are a joy in the aviary but might be overlooked in the wild. No matter how small, these birds usually eat some insects which is an important service to an ungrateful world. Continue reading →

There’s a concept in futuristic and speculative fiction that we can take DNA samples of all the living animals on our planet, freeze them or otherwise preserve them, and at the time we find a new planet that is a veritable Garden of Eden, revive and release the Earth inhabitants to the new world. I can think of at least two movies and one book where this concept is key to the story. Continue reading →

The movie Silent Running made a huge impression on me when it came out. As a loner, I liked the idea of being alone on a space ship and tending to the plants and animals that were being rescued from our dying planet. But in reality, that ship or those ships would be so costly to put out in space. The better plan is to send ova and sperm, frozen and protected from radiation. If you read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, you get the idea. Continue reading →

Today in my corner of the world, we have rain. Last week at this time we had 90+ degrees f. I wore as little as I could get away with and had every fan in the house pointed at me. After a very hot summer, we are hearing rumors of an El Nino condition. And we have had those before, but somehow intelligent people are a little more concerned these days about the odd weather patterns. Continue reading →